Review: In 'Project Hail Mary,' saving the galaxy requires a hopeful, nerdy Ryan Gosling
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“Project Hail Mary” is wholesome science fiction that satisfies like a jumbo serving of apple pie and milk.A middle school science teacher, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), wakes up from an amnesiac coma on a spaceship and discovers that he alone must save the Earth.
“I can’t even moonwalk,” he protests.Grace doesn’t know who he is and for the first few minutes, his lips barely work.Weakened and raspy from years in suspended cryosleep, when he moans “Where am I?” it comes out “Mrregghh errgh mreeh?” From there, humor-forward directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”) put Gosling through a primal physical acting exercise.
Rolling off the bed in a silicon sleep cocoon, Grace gradually evolves from a wriggling larval stage into a fully upright, walking and talking smarty-pants.Midway, he passes through a phase best described as hungover Kurt Cobain.Vaguely, Grace recalls what’s gone wrong back home.
Microscopic black particles called astrophage are gobbling the energy of every star including the sun.Earth will enter a new ice age in roughly 30 years, just enough time for a grim German commander, Eva (Sandra Hüller), to send a three-person international crew to the Tau Ceti solar system, the only spot in the galaxy successfully defending itself from the plague, and beam back a report on its survival strategy.
It’s a one-way mission and Yáo (Ken Leung) and Olesya (Milana Vayntrub), the only experienced astronauts aboard, accidentally died earlier than planned.Intelligent, funny, curious and humble, Gosling’s Grace is essentially a clone of the character Matt Damon played in 2015’s “The Martian,” a geek you want to grab an intergalactic beer with.Both adventures are a welcome break from confident alpha heroes or cynical tough guys and they share DNA: They were adapted by Drew Goddard from bestselling novels by author...